BREAKDOWN: Crypto Is for the Dissidents and Disenfranchised
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2021
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A reading of two essays that show the full range of communities connecting to crypto.
This episode is sponsored by NYDIG.
On this edition of “Long Reads Sunday,” NLW reads two pieces:
- “Why Shouldn’t the Navajo Mine Bitcoin?” by William Foxley
- “This Imprisoned Russian Artist Is Selling NFTs to Support His Family and Fellow Inmates” by Anna Baydakova
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NYDIG, the institutional-grade platform for bitcoin, is making it possible for thousands of banks who have trusted relationships with hundreds of millions of customers, to offer Bitcoin. Learn more at NYDIG.com/NLW.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced by and features Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with today’s editing by Adrian Blust, research by Scott Hill and additional production support by Eleanor Pahl. Adam B. Levine is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. The music you heard today behind our sponsor is “Dark Crazed Cap” by Isaac Joel. Image credit: Tribalium/iStock/Getty Images Plus, modified by CoinDesk.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. |
| 0:09.2 | It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. |
| 0:16.2 | The breakdown is sponsored by Nidig and produced and distributed by CoinDesk. |
| 0:22.7 | What's going on, guys? It is Sunday, November 14th, and that means it's time for Long Reads Sunday. |
| 0:30.2 | This week, we are reading two pieces, and while one is an op-ed as normal, one is actually just reportage from CoinDesk, but as you'll see, I think it fits the theme. |
| 0:41.8 | The first is by William Foxley and is called Why Shouldn't the Navajo mine Bitcoin? |
| 0:47.6 | Will used to be a tech reporter for CoinDesk, but is now the multimedia director at Compass Mining. |
| 0:54.8 | He writes, |
| 1:01.3 | Navajo Nation is prime Bitcoin mining country. While Texas and Wyoming have taken the limelight since China's Bitcoin mining ban, the groundwork for Bitcoin mining is already present in |
| 1:05.6 | the American Southwest. It's a good match, too. Bitcoin mining instead devises healthy economic growth the Four Corners region |
| 1:12.1 | has desperately needed for generations. In 2017, West Block, a firm from Calgary, Alberta, approached |
| 1:18.5 | the Navajo about building a mining center on Navajo land. Earlier this year, the Canadian firm |
| 1:23.4 | broke ground on an extension of the mine to double in size to 15 megawatts. Using energy sources from |
| 1:28.7 | the area, the mine can spit out about 400 Bitcoin per year depending on network conditions. |
| 1:33.8 | It's short-sighted to view Bitcoins as the only output of the mine, however. The mine creates |
| 1:38.2 | prospects for multiple avenues of societal growth, including financial access and energy usage, |
| 1:43.7 | both of which have been long-standing |
| 1:45.0 | thorns in the Navajo's side, according to numerous in-person interviews with Navajo Nation members, |
| 1:49.8 | tribal delegates, and government officials conducted as part of a recent documentary on the subject. |
| 1:54.4 | And not in a selfish sense, but wholly in a self-interested sense. |
| 1:57.9 | Bitcoin promises a sovereignty that Navajo and other first nations have always |
| 2:01.2 | been promised but have never received. The case for Bitcoin. The Navajo Nation is the largest |
... |
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